Metaphors of transcendence

The chessboard metaphor and the mental battle

One of the most powerful metaphors for experiencing the Self as Context is that of the infinite chessboard.

Imagine that our thoughts, emotions, and memories are the pieces of the game.

The white pieces represent our "good" thoughts: confidence, joy, happy memories.

The black pieces represent our "bad" thoughts: fear, doubt, trauma. These pieces are in a constant war, trying to eliminate each other.

We spend our lives trying to make the white pieces win, frantically moving pieces to push the black pieces out.

The key question is: Who are you in this metaphor? The usual answer is "I am White," but that is a mistake, because it implies that you are at war with a part of yourself. From ACT's perspective, you are not the pieces; you are the board.

The board is in intimate contact with all the pieces, it holds all the pieces, but it does not participate in the battle.

If a black piece falls on the board, the board does not turn black or break. The board is the space necessary for the game to exist.

By adopting the identity of the board, we stop trying to win the war against our negative thoughts. We understand that our function is to contain the experience, not fight it.

The board can go anywhere carrying all the pieces on it, whereas if we identify with one side, we are paralyzed in the struggle.

The metaphor of the sky and the weather: constancy versus transience

Another evocative image for understanding the nature of the observer is the comparison with the sky and the weather.

Our thoughts and emotions are the weather: violent storms of anger, gray clouds of depression, hurricane winds of anxiety, or sunny days of calm.

Weather is, by definition, changeable and transitory; no storm lasts forever. We, the Observer Self, are the sky.The sky has an infinite capacity to contain any kind of weather.

When there is a massive thunderstorm, the sky is not damaged, burned by lightning, or drenched by rain. It simply provides the space for the storm to occur.

Most importantly, the sky is always there, even when it is totally covered by dark clouds and we can't see it.

Sometimes, in the midst of an emotional crisis (dense clouds), we forget that we are the blue sky and believe we are the storm.

Therapeutic work consists of "climbing above the clouds" to reconnect with that calm vastness that has always been and